On this day - August 8, 2011

I've been trying to come up with an idea that would get me to blog more often. Today I finally had an idea (the jury is out on whether it will be a good idea or not). I'm a historian at heart and can be a news junkie at times, and love politics, and am looking for a way to get myself to understand more about current events in the world around me (the WHOLE world around me - not just my little corner of it). So, why not blog on the historical events of the day - my day - and maybe matters of significance occurring on this date in years gone by. Today I love the idea. Tomorrow maybe not so much. We'll see where this takes me. I'm hoping to learn a lot on the way.

ON THIS DAY:
News Item 1 - Mark O. Hatfield dies. Before today all I knew about Mark Hatfield was that he was a senator from Oregon and that the library at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon was named after him. But today I learned that not only did he serve in the U.S. Senate from 1967 to 1997 (serving eight years as chair of the Appropriations Committee) but he was also Oregon's youngest secretary of state and its youngest governor. He was described as a liberal conservative and was very outspoken against war.

News Item 2 - The Economy. This past Friday, Standard & Poors downgraded the United States from an AAA to an AA+. Evidently this is a big deal. There are 3 agencies/companies that grade companies and governments and the other two did not downgrade us. Now there's a debate over whether Standard & Poors even matters because apparently they gave AAA gradings to the very companies that ended up causing much of this country's economic mess in the first place. Interesting. Initially, S&P overestimated the U.S.'s debt by over $2 trillion causing the government to protest S&P's downgrade. S&P did a slight revision of its numbers in the final draft but stuck with its downgrade.

The S&P report states that "the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011." (The report is available online at www.standardandpoors.com/ratings/us-rating-action/en/us/.) The report goes on to state that since the April 18 "negative outlook," S&P changed its "view of the difficulties in bridging the
gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics any time soon."

So basically they downgraded us because the two major political parties in this country are unable to get along, compromise, or work together in any fashion for the good of this nation. While each side blames the other and picks away at this report they both fail to see the chief underlying cause of this downgrade - its not whether there should have been more cuts or more taxes - its that the two sides are unable and unwilling to work together to solve the nation's economic problems.

This morning the stock market fell to its lowest point since 2008.

News Item 3 - London riots. London has experienced two days of violent rioting as people take to the streets to protest the police shooting of a young black man in a predominantly Afro-Caribbean neighborhood (Tottenham). The man was the father of four small children and was shot while sitting in his cab. There were peaceful protests at first but they quickly turned violent. The result has been burnt homes and business and over 300 arrests plus numerous injuries to protesters and police alike. A similar incident happened in Tottenham in 1985 and also resulted in riots.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
On August 8, 1876, Thomas Edison received a patent for the mimeograph. The mimeograph was a "method of preparing autographic stencils for printing." And on this day in 1899 the refrigerator was patented by A.T. Marshall.

On August 8, 1911, one hundred years ago, the number of representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives was established at 435. I wonder if they cooperated and compromised better in 1911 then they have in 2011.

On this day in 1945, President Truman signed the United Nations charter. The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. (Facts courtesy Wikipedia.) With war going on in Afghanistan and Iraq and major conflicts in Somalia and Syria, to mention just a few, I wonder if anyone would be able to consider this project a success yet.